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Starting a mage
So, you're thinking of playing a Mage? This page is intended to give a short overview of what to do over the first 10 levels or so, just to get you started on the right path. If you're looking for more of an overview of the class's abilities, see the main Mage page. For more advanced topics, see mage tactics. For a more general overview on starting out playing WoW, see the Newbie Guide. Introduction A Mage's primary mode of damage is through magic, meaning that they avoid melee combat at all costs so as to be able to cast magical spells. They can do direct damage, but truly shine with their ability to inflict various types of AoE damage, buff groups, control crowds, conjure water and food and open portals to capital cities for themselves and party members. However, they cannot heal and are unlikely to stay alive very long under fire. If you're considering playing a mage, you'll have to ask yourself a few questions, first: * Do I like being a "glass cannon", able to inflict massive damage, while also being fragile? * When grouping, can I control the aggro my spells generate to avoid becoming the target of a mob? * Can I think quickly, and handle a large set of hotkeys in the process of staying out of melee range? * Do I like providing AoE support, using various AoE spells to nuke large groups of enemies? * Do I like the fact I can conjure my own water and food, thus saving money in the long run? * Do I subsequently not mind that others will want to get their hands on that water and food and often ask you in private messages? * Do I like being able to transport myself and my friends to capital cities of my faction in mere seconds from anywhere in the world? * Do I subsequently not mind that others will private message me whenever I'm in a main city to portal them to somewhere else? These are all things a mage will deal with. It's not the hardest role, but can be very enjoyable both in single and group play. Mages are not as popular as priests or warriors when people need to set up a group, but can be the third choice in certain instances once the warrior/priest combination is brought together. Race Selection If you're a power-player, you'll want to consider the various Racial Traits when choosing what race to play. Click Mage Races for an in-depth discussion of various races that can be mages. You might also consider the racial stats, but after the first 20 levels or so these become largely irrelevant, as the items you've gained will far outstrip any racial bonuses. For more casual gamers, there's really no major difference between the races - choose the race that you want to play, whether for its looks, its voice, or because its simply good fun! Early Leveling The easiest way to progress through the early levels is to simply do any and all of the quests you can find. Not only will you breeze through the first 5 to 10 levels, but you'll get useful gear and precious money. Money is particularly important so you can purchase your spells. You will spend levels 1 to 5 in your starting town. Make sure you get all the abilities and spells you can from your trainer. Between level 5 and 6 you'll find yourself heading off to your second town and a new trainer who can teach you various things. At the second town, repeat the process - do each and every quest you can find. It's important to keep up with your abilities and your gear. Now is also an appropriate time to start thinking about what profession you want. You can choose them once you reach level 5. Levels 1 - 3 You're initially equipped with a ranged attack, Fireball, and a self-buff, Frost Armor. With , you can purchase Arcane Intellect. Keep both Frost Armor and Arcane Intellect active on yourself at all times. And feel free to cast Arcane Intellect on others as a friendly gesture. Open combat at maximum range with Fireball. Keep spamming until the mob is dead, attacking with your staff if necessary. For trolls, activating Berserking as often as possible to supplement your spell damage. Levels 4 - 5 At level 4, you can learn Frostbolt and Conjure Water. Conjure Water helps eliminate the need for you to purchase mana regenerating items. Open combat at maximum range with Fireball, chain casting another before combat actually begins. As the mob approaches, cast Frostbolt to keep it at bay and finish with another Fireball. As a general rule of thumb, prefer Fireball over Frost Bolt for DPSing. Always open with Fireball, but use Frostbolt to slow approaching targets. If executed properly, a mob should be dead by the time it reaches you, leaving you without a scratch. If a mob starts to run away, use Frost Bolt to slow them down. If, however, you find that certain mobs are reaching you while they still have too many health points remaining, alter your tactics slightly. Pull with frost bolt, then cast fireball, then cast a second frost bolt to renew the slowing debuff on the mob, then cast fireball again, alternating between frost bolt and fireball until the mob reaches you. This won't do as much damage-per-second as chain casting fireballs will, but it will give you a lot more casting time before the mob reaches you. Notable Early Quests '' The intention is to link into the Quests page here with a few low-level quests once they are added, with particular emphasis on including quests with nice mage rewards, and any mage-specific quests. No real need to include the very basic starting quests as everybody will see those easily enough -- Goldark'' The following lists are not intended to be comprehensive, but cover a selection of the best quests in the starting areas from levels 1 to 10. Gnomes * - Quest 1 Humans * - nice early staff reward * - The head of Edwin VanCleef - Westfall Level 22-23 This isn't an early quest, but it has an excellent reward for mages; The gives you +6 Intellect and + 11 spirit, which is a huge benefit to a level 25 mage. Draenei * - Quest 1 Trolls * - Quest 1 Undead * - Quest 1 Blood Elf * - Quest 1 On Soloing and Grouping Soloing For the first 10 levels, the Mage shouldn't have much trouble soloing up to two mobs at a time around your level. Your primary damage comes from using Fireball and Fire Blast. Fire Blast is insta-cast, so for the best DPS you want to be using this spell whenever it's available, although it can be used to quickly kill fleeing opponents if you're likely to have them wounded enough to flee within 8 seconds (the cooldown time). Frostbolt is useful as an opening move because it slows the mob down. A good early substitute for fire spells at this level is Arcane Missiles. Always keep your buffs on. Frost Armor not only gives you more armor but also slows down a mob's attack speed. Arcane Intellect boosts your Intellect giving you more mana and a higher chance to get a critical hit (crit) with damage spells. Given that a mage is limited to cloth armor, it is also a good idea to obtain armor kits at the earliest possible opportunity and to upgrade your armor kits as you level. Enchantments are another option but remember that you will go through equipment rather quickly at this stage of the game so if you want enchantments, put them on items you believe you will hold on to for a while. Also, don't be afraid to use your staff to whack mobs over the head. During the early levels, this can be a significant form of damage and allows you to get started on increasing your skills in Defense and Staves. As your level progression continues, you will want to make sure you start maxing out your weapon skills. The Intellect stat determines how fast you learn and as a mage, whose Intellect is quite high compared to other classes, mages progress a bit faster in this area. Staves are the preferred weapon for a Mage to use since most staves offer bonuses to Intellect. So early on, make sure to use your weapons. Mages can learn to use daggers and one-handed swords from a Weapon Trainer but keep in mind one thing: as a mage, you have the lowest Attack Power of any class. Choose your weapons based on their stat bonuses and not how much damage they will do. You won't be on the front lines due to your low armor. Coming across a wand early on will be difficult. If all else fails, seek out an enchanter to create one for you as enchanters learn to make basic wands in the beginning. Once you have one, use it often to bring your wand skill up (wands are great for fleeing opponents.) Don't be discouraged if you miss or a creature resists your wand. The more you use it, the better it will perform. Also it's very important to get as much Intellect as possible. Grouping A Mages strategy for grouping isn't all that different from soloing. Since your spells ignore a target's armor rating, even a low level Mage can do more damage than a Warrior of the same level. The drawback is that this means you have a greater chance of drawing aggro so be sure to give your party's tank a chance to get the monster's attention before you cast. Try not to single out targets for yourself. Instead, pick the target everyone's attacking. You can do this by selecting another player and hitting the "F" key to select that player's target. And pass around Arcane Intellect! Even classes that do not have mana can benefit from higher Intellect stat as it is the stat used to increase weapon skills. The Primary spells you will be using in a group is either a Direct Damage (DD) Spell (like Arcane Missiles or Scorch) and an Area of Effect (AoE) spell (like Arcane Explosion or Flamestrike). The DD spell will be used to focus on a single mob - usually the one "pulled" to the group - since the usual group tactic is to focus on one mob and take it down fast. Your AoE spell is for when the pull goes bad or your healer picked up Aggro and has a mob pounding on him. This is the time to step in and take one for the team - spam your AoE spell to get as much Aggro for the mobs directed to yourself - freeing up the healer to focus their healing attention on you. Be careful about this tactic though. Your tank will need a few seconds to draw the monster's attention and it usually only takes one critical hit to kill you. The last "must have" spell for the Mage, and which makes them unique in a group, is the crowd control spell Polymorph (or "Sheeping "as it is known). Sheeping causes a mob to wander around as a harmless sheep for a time (depending on spell level) giving the party time to deal with other mobs. Once the spell ends, or if someone attacks the Polymorphed target before the duration ends, the target will angrily come to you. Also keep in mind that a Polymorphed target will regenerate hit points at three times the standard rate. Polymorphing a damaged target is a very bad thing. And finally, Polymorph only works on Humanoid, Beast or Critter type targets. Useful Professions The Mage can benefit directly and indirectly from many of the professions available. Primary Professions * Herbalism & Alchemy : Herbalism and Alchemy are fairly useful for the Mage. Herbalism allows the gathering of various herbs and the Alchemy profession allows the creation of various potions. Health potions will often save your life, Mana potions instantly restore Mana, not to mention potions of Defense, Agility, Regeneration potions, and more. * Engineering & Mining : For a Mage, Engineering is perhaps less useful than it is for others. After all, you don't need dynamite with your Mage spells and you cannot use a gun. Engineering is best coupled with mining as it is heavily reliant on metals. Most Engineering items require you to be an Engineer to use or wear them so you're less likely to make lots of money from this trade. Guns and Sights are one notable exception to this. On the plus side, there are some items that add increases to Stamina and Spirit making them worthwhile. * Tailoring : A most useful Mage profession! As a cloth wearer, you can craft your own garments, many of which can add nice spell bonuses. And let's face it, everyone needs bags! * Enchanting : Enchanting just naturally seems to go with a mage. After all, you are the master of the Arcane. It also makes a good second profession in tandem with Tailoring. Enchanting allows you to add magical enchantments to boost the statistics of weapons and armor, including your own. However, you do need to disenchant existing magical items in order to get the magic components you'll require -- thus tailoring's ability to make Green items out of the ever-present cloth drops you can then disenchant make it an even better choice as a companion profession. This can be an expensive business! * Blacksmith / Mining : The Blacksmithing profession is probably not the wisest choice for a Mage. Except for swords, Weightstones, and Sharpening Stones, you won't be able to use much of anything you make. The most you could hope for is some extra coin selling your creations. And because Blacksmithing is heavily metal dependent, Mining is pretty much a requirement. Not choosing Mining means you have to buy your metal and that would negate any profit you would make. * Leatherworking / Skinning : Like Blacksmithing, a Mage will not be using the majority of the items a Leatherworker can make. Still, you can make your own Armor Kits and there will always be players willing to buy them and the other items in this profession. That is assuming you take up Skinning because without it, you must buy your own leather. * Herbalism / Skinning / Mining : If you don't go for one of the typical pairings, you may just want to grab Herbalism, Skinning or Mining and use them to sell resources for straight profit, since they are always in demand. Start your profession early! It's usually not too expensive and you want to ensure that the gear you create with your skills is applicable to your character's level. Secondary Professions * Cooking * Fishing * First Aid As a Mage, you can summon all the food and drink you'll ever need. This makes Cooking and Fishing fairly redundant - nevertheless, there's no harm in picking up the basics. But both have uses even for Mage: several cooked foods provide buffs to two statistics, typically stamina and spirit, and fishing is a good way to make money. All secondary professions cost each to learn. Eating cooked food will make you "Well Fed," giving a player a fifteen minute boost to Spirit and Stamina, two of a Mage's primary stats. With the Fishing profession, you can fish for Sagefish. Unlike other cooked meals, eating a cooked Sagefish offers an increase to Mana regeneration. First Aid is another important profession for Mages. Outside of potions, First Aid is the only other way a Mage can heal themselves during combat. Aside from bandages, First Aid allows a player to create Antivenom to remove poison effects. If you have excess bandages, you can sell them to vendors for a decent price or even to other players. You will probably make more money selling the raw materials (cloth) as the materials required for bandages are worth more to tailors for making clothes and, in particular, bags. Long-Term Goals Unlike a mêlée class, magi are not very dependent on gear. Rather, you should ensure you have enough money to afford all your spells (the teleport spells at levels 20, 30, and (with the Burning Crusade expansion) 60; and the Portal spells, at 40, 50, and (with BC) 65, which are very expensive) and focus on leveling up. Magi are somewhat fortunate in that they tend to get somewhat well-endowed financially a bit quicker than a lot of other classes, although this greatly depends on your playing style. If you are in groups a lot, and lots of gear comes along that you don't use, it's generally more polite not to roll on the things you have no use for, and let others such as Warriors and Paladins take the Mail equipment. In this case, your profession will probably be a higher source of income. However, if you like to solo a lot (which is always a good thing to do at least once in a while), you'll get total pickings out of whatever monsters may be carrying on them. You can decide what to bring and what not to bring, and it may go pretty fast, since Mages tend to kill mobs faster than others (due to high damage spells). During the downtime while you're waiting for mana and/or health to recover, it may be advantageous (depending on where you are and what you are doing) to run back to the nearest vendor to lighten your load. Also, you might get some pretty nifty items from doing your own solo work, especially if you venture bravely into instances or dungeons or places where high-value drops are a matter of public knowledge. This will provide you a large pool of cash to, as said above, pay for your surprisingly increasingly expensive training costs. --Froderick Decide where you want to go with your Mage Talents, as these can make a big difference to the way you'll play your mage past level 10. Suggested options are listed on the Mage builds page You may also want to consider training a 1-handed weapon such as a dagger or sword (or both, if you can afford it) if you prefer to be able to hold an item in your off-hand too, but keep in mind the relative scarcity of caster daggers/swords in the early game. If you find an offhand item that you really like, you should start looking for a dagger or a sword with good caster statistics. Ignore the damage/dps, as mages are not designed to melee, and if you need to do damage when OOM, a wand is usually a better choice. Both daggers and swords exist that have useful stats, but caster daggers are more common than caster swords in the early game. See Mage Tactics for more advanced information on Mages, taking you beyond the first 10 levels. External links * WoW Mage Leveling Guide - Brief review on World of Warcraft Mage Leveling Guides available. * Mage Talent Guide - Helps new Mages choose their talents at early levels. Mage,Starting Mage